Sources said Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., is calling on the industry to develop the higher-speed chips, which would be approximately 66% faster than emerging PC266 DDR SDRAM, to match memory clock speeds to the company's 400MHz IA-32 quad-pumped processor bus. Intel is hoping prototypes of the 1.8V chips could be available as early as next year, sources said.

It's unclear how the 400MHz DDR SDRAM specification would relate to an industry-led DDR-II development effort that is expected to yield chips of the same frequency. Memory suppliers and third-party chipset vendors have been working with JEDEC (Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council) to define the 400MHz DDR-II standard.

Intel has become increasingly involved in DDR-II standards deliberations in the past year, and sources said the company is trying to accelerate market adoption of the technology from its projected 2003 launch. Sources added that it's possible the new Intel initiative and the DDR-II specifications could be melded into one standard.

An Intel spokeswoman declined to comment on the company's development plans.

Some DRAM industry executives indicated that Intel is asserting itself in the standards process much as it did when it drove the earlier PC100 SDRAM standard to fruition by taking ownership of chip validation.

The executives, who asked not to be identified, said Intel's presence helped pull together the myriad pieces of the PC100 standard and got it to market sooner. By contrast, the DDR specification-which admittedly is a more complex endeavor-has proved a cumbersome, disjointed effort as IC makers, chipset suppliers, motherboard makers, and OEMs deliberate without a unifying voice.

Sources with knowledge of Intel's plans said the company is not driving the DDR specification at the expense of Direct Rambus DRAM, but rather in recognition that its customers want options when it comes to their choice of memory interface.

"Intel is covering all its memory options at this point, and will promote next-generation development of both memory types to let the market pick the winner and the loser," said one chip executive.

The standardization of a 400MHz DDR SDRAM is under way even before the industry has defined the 333MHz DDR chip and module that will immediately succeed PC266 SDRAM. Sources said Intel is more interested in the 400MHz clock speed because it matches the company's new quad-pumped processor bus.

While microprocessor makers invariably try to match memory clock speeds as a multiple of their CPU bus frequencies, Intel in this instance has found that its platform's parallel data access is more efficient with memory and processor buses running at the same frequency, sources said.

Already, Intel's Pentium III processor is set to begin using 400MHz DDR chips as part of Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox game player. However, the processor and memory will share a point-to-point on-board connection that does not require the added complexity of a core-logic chipset. Memory-IC makers are supplying 400MHz DDR and even higher-frequency chips for point-to-point graphics cards, which don't require the same strict adherence to IC timing issues as PCs and higher- end computers.